Canadian Labour Reporter

Bill 1 aimed at ensuring parties focus on residents on donations from a corpora- tion or a union… potentially you could have almost a conflict of interest in the sense that your loyalties lie with those people who have made donations to you. They ought to lie with the citizens you represent. So by removing the ability for corporations and unions to impact the political landscape that way, it makes poli- ticians accountable directly to the population that voted them in." The bill received all-party support, though the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose parties voiced concerns about the retroactive cutoff date, which was tied to the date the bill was intro- duced. According to Ganley, the ret- roactive cutoff was necessary to ensure last-minute contributions weren't used to give organiza- tions an unfair advantage. "We're confident that will pass scrutiny," Ganley said. There has also been criticism of potential loopholes in the leg- islation. "You're going to need Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and who knows who else to find out who gave money and how it got there," said interim leader of Al- berta's PCs Ric McIver in a state- ment. "The transparency that exists today will no longer exist. Today, they could just write a cheque and report it in a transparent way and in the future they won't be able to write a cheque," he said of corpo- rate and labour organizations. "If they look for ways to sup- port government it won't be near- ly as transparent, nearly as open, nearly as fair as what it is today." The argument that corpora- tions and unions will now seek illegal means to make political contributions is a weak one, ac- cording to Dana Phillip Doiron, director of policy and communi- cations for Elections Nova Scotia. "That's like saying 'You can put up speeding limits, but people will still speed.' If people speed, you have to have a regime in place to make sure that you catch them. And when you catch them you prosecute them," he said. "It's like any law; you have to have conse- quences if people break them." In 2011 amendments were made to Nova Scotia's Members and Public Employees Disclosure Act as well as its Elections Act, banning corporations and unions from making political contribu- tions and limiting individuals to contributions of $5,000. The changes required contributors' names to be reported for any do- nation of more than $200. Also in 2011, the province introduced limitations and re- porting requirements relating to third-party advertising. These limitations were nec- essary to level the playing field, Doiron said, and to ensure that "corporations and unions and other large organizations couldn't have a deleterious effect on elections by spending more money than others would be able to." Unlike Alberta, Nova Scotia allowed a period of almost two years between the amendments' introduction and implementa- tion. This period of communica- tion, Doiron said, was intended to allow those affected the neces- sary time to adjust. The period of communication was also crucial in establishing limitations for contributions to third-party advertising. "Neither governments nor organizations want to limit free speech and participation in elec- tions. The balance you strike is in how much you regulate, how much you require of the people who are participating and the limits you place on them," Doiron said. "Nova Scotia set what we be- lieve to be a reasonable restric- tion of third parties' expenses. Primarily, the major obligation other than restricting how much they can spend is to register and let us know how much they spend and where they got the money. That transparency has been ac- cepted as reasonable." Doiron said it was only natu- ral Alberta would "come into the fold" with similar legislation. Alberta is exploring the issue of contributions to third-party advertisers moving forward, Ganley said, paying special at- tention to the issue of freedom of expression. A special committee will ex- amine the legislation, scrutiniz- ing the issue third-party adver- tising, the issue of the retroactive cutoff, the issue of services being included in future definitions of 'donation,' and the issue of Alber- ta's high contribution ceiling. While it is possible future changes could be forthcoming, Ganley said she is confident in the legislation moving forward. "Politicians are going to have to seek not only votes but also dona- tions to political campaigns from average citizens, which means they're going to have to spend a lot more time listening to those citizens instead of listening to corporations and unions with deep pockets," she said. "I think it will have an impact in the sense that it will make the elections more fair." 7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER news < from pg. 1 Critics of Alberta's Bill 1 — including interim leader of the province's PC party Ric McIver — say corporate and labour organizations will continue to contribute to political parties, but with a lack of transparency. Photo: Todd Korol (Reuters)

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